‘Government does not have the means’ – Nitiwul pleads with striking teachers

The Minister for Defence, has made a passionate appeal to striking teachers, asking them to be patient with the government over their demands.

Dominic Nitiwul, who was speaking on the July 6, 2022 edition of Joy News’ PM Express said, since President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo-led government came into office, it has shown good faith regarding workers demand and that presently government does not have the means to meet demands of the striking workers.

He, however, called on the workers to call off the strike and give the government time for negotiations.

“This idea of ‘I’m going to go on strike, I’m going to do this,’ if government has all the means they will give it to you. This government has shown very good faith to everybody, that, if they have the means they will do it.

“They’ve never disrespected workers, they’ve never shouted on workers, they’ve negotiated with workers on good faith. I plead with them that they should give government the opportunity to negotiate with them in good faith,” Dominic Nitiwul said.

He added, “can you imagine you’re leading an IMF team and workers are asking for between 6 to 8 billion extra income or extra expenditure on the budget? It makes your work very very difficult. I just plead that yes, things are difficult, we all accept.

“It’s not the fault of the worker that maybe if he was earning 3000 Ghana cedis yesterday that 3000 may buy less things. But like I said, let’s plead with everybody to give government the opportunity to negotiate very well with them.

“But I really really worry that whatever we do, we should look at our kids and ensure that we don’t leave a country where tomorrow those kids will find Ghana a different place. We’ve managed ourselves very well up till now and we’ll continue to do whatever we have to do to keep this country very safe, extremely very safe,” Nitiwul stressed.

Most unions in the pre-tertiary educational sector have already embarked on an indefinite strike calling on government to pay them a 20% Cost-of-Living-Allowance (COLA).

The COLA, is said to augment their rapidly eroding salaries amidst high inflation levels and soaring fuel and food prices among others.

Other workers’ unions demanding the same benefits have threatened to embark on their own strikes in the days ahead should their demands fall on deaf ears.